Chapter 8

Frost left us in the tunnels and headed back to tell Yori where we were. I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of wandering through dark caves with only a glowing mask as our guide, but I was the one who had decided to come, and I didn't really have a whole lot of choice. I could have gone back with Frost, but that would have meant having to go back to face Dan, and I had no desire to do that, what with how things had ended between us. If I returned, he would probably say something along the lines of "I told you so," which was the last thing I wanted to hear, especially when it was coming out of his mouth.

I didn't know how long we had been traveling or how far we had gone-every tunnel looked like the one that came before- before I noticed that Takua was missing.

"Hey, Jaller," I beckoned to the ta-matoran. "Did you see where Takua went?"

"Not again," he sighed, glancing around him in a vague hope of seeing his friend but without much conviction in his voice.

"I take it he makes a habit of doing this," I observed keenly.

"This was how we got in this mess in the first place. He wanders off to explore, and I'm stuck with his duty," he explained exasperated.

"I'm sure he doesn't mean it on-" I was cut off by a sudden, violent headache. It reminded me of the one I'd had back in the caves before I had lost consciousness except this time there was no voice. I had no explanation for it, but I was starting to regret ever exploring those caverns.

"Are you okay?" Jaller asked as he watched me put a hand to my temple.

"I'm fine. Just a headache," I half lied. I was pretty sure it wasn't a normal headache, but I wasn't going to be able to explain it to him, not since I had no clue about the nature of it. He looked at me quizzically for a moment and I realized he probably didn't know what I was talking about, or, if he did, he thought something was seriously wrong with me. Most people didn't get violent headaches in a split second.

After another moment the voice I was hoping would come started speaking. "There is darkness here. I can feel it. Free me!" It urged. I fought against it hoping that it would go away and that I wouldn't end up on the floor again.

"I would be so much happier if this would just go away," I moaned, as if it would help my predicament. Then, as if on cue, it stopped. I was left bewildered by it, not knowing what to do about the sudden lack of pain. Would this constantly happen? Was I going to have this voice talking inside my head forever? Or was it linked to the medallion that was still in my pocket and simply go away if I got rid of it? I wasn't sure. If the later decision was true, I couldn't really do anything about it. I knew Yori would be very upset if I just dumped an artifact of his history in some random tunnel.

I was pulled from my thoughts by the sound of Takua coming back. "There you are!" Jaller exclaimed. "What were you up to this time?"

"Jaller, about the mask," Takua began nervously.

"What about it? Are you ready to take it? Finally?" Jaller asked hopefully.

"I can't…I can't go with you," Takua admitted.

Both Jaller and I blinked stupidly in surprise. From what I had seen and heard from these two, they were close friends that had been together since the beginning of their adventure. Why he was suddenly backing out was a complete mystery.

"Oh that's just great!" Jaller exclaimed, anger beginning to sound through his voice. "First you stick me with your duty, and then you ditch me!"

"My duty is to myself. I quit! Just take the mask and go," Takua snapped and hopped onto the back of his crab.

"Takua, wait up," I called and began to run after the small form of the Ta-matoran.

"Not you, too," Jaller complained.

I went back over and said softly, "Let me talk to him. Maybe I can get him to change his mind. You keep on going. Hopefully, we'll catch up with you before too long."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Don't worry. It's going to be all right." That was going on my list for biggest and worst lie I could think of. Who was I kidding? There was no guarantee that I could get Takua to come back, let alone tell me why he up and quit.

"Okay," Jaller conceded somewhat unwillingly and turned back around. The only thing I was sorry about for going with Takua was that there was even less light now to guide us than before. I only hoped that crab could see in the dark or else we were going to get so lost in these tunnels or I was going to run into a wall. Neither option sounded pleasant.

"So, Takua, any reason behind this?" I asked after we were a safe distance from Jaller.

"I have my reaons," he answered vaguely.

"Any in particular?" Irritation was beginning to creep into my voice. "I mean, Jaller is your best friend. There had to be something behind it," I pressed. I could hear the torment in his voice as he tried to hide the truth. I recognized it from the time I had to lie to my teacher, who was practically my father. It wasn't easy keeping something from someone you cared about or someone you knew cared about you.

"I can't tell you. You'd only tell someone else and that would just cause more trouble."

"Takua," I said softly. "Whatever it is you say it'll stay between you and I; promise. No one else has to know. And I realize what it's like to keep something from a friend. It hurts, and you know you have to tell someone, or you'll explode from trying to bear the weight of the whole mess."

He looked over at me, a look of wanting in his glowing red eyes. He needed an ear to listen. "I've done something terrible," he breathed.

"Whatever it is, you can tell me," I urged leaning closer.

"It was…Makuta," he whispered, looking scared even as he hissed the last word out.

"Makuta?" I repeated, trying to remember who that was. "He's the spirit of darkness or something like that, right? His sons are those things from the mountain?"

"Yes, that's him," he affirmed. "He wanted me to give up the mask, but I refused. I couldn't tell Jaller, and I couldn't stay with him. I was only putting him in danger. The Rahkshi are after me," he explained.

"You? Why you? Jaller is the herald," I asked quizzically.

"No, he's not the real herald," Takua said heavily. "I was scared and convinced everyone that Jaller was the herald, but it's really just me. I found the mask, and when it touched me on the kholi field, it glowed. Everyone just thought it was shining at Jaller, but it was because I pointed it at him. I didn't want to believe it, but back on the mountain, I had the mask and the Rahkshi chased me. They want me, and as long as I refuse Makuta, the Rahkshi will keep chasing me. At least this way, Jaller won't have to get hurt."

I was stunned for a minute at this revelation. Ta-koro had been destroyed looking for him. Everything bad that had happened was because of him. I wasn't sure whether or not to be angry at him. I didn't have much right to since I wasn't there from the beginning nor was this truly my fight, but that didn't mean it still wasn't inside me somewhere.

"Takua, why didn't you say anything to Jaller?" I questioned as calmly as I could muster.

"He would have been furious if I told him. What would you have done?"

I didn't know how to answer him. I honestly had no clue what I would have done in his place. "I don't know, but running away wasn't the best decision you could have made. We have to get to Onu-koro. Maybe there will be a toa there that can help us," I suggested.

"We are not going to involve the toa in this. You promised you wouldn't say anything," he said, throwing my words back in my face.

"Takua, this is kind of important. Someone needs know about this. You and Jaller could still be in danger from the Rahkshi. If you don't-"

"You promised you wouldn't say anything! Are you going to keep your word or aren't you?" he spat at me, turning to face me head on.

How was I supposed to answer? If I said no, he might just walk off in another direction and leave me here. If I said yes, there was a chance something worse might happen. "Takua," I tried to answer but words wouldn't come.

"It's a simple question. Yes or no?" he pressed.

I sighed and conceded. "Fine. I won't say anything, but you have to do something about this."

"Fine," he answered and we kept on moving. It was at least several more hours before we finally reached the underground city. During that time I had already taken off my snow clothes and draped them over my shoulder.

As we entered, the sound of a loud, booming voice echoed off the walls of what could only be described as an enormous cave; it served as the village of Onu-koro. Remembering that Yori Yoi's tunnels were right above us, it made me wonder how big these mountains really were and how deep we were underground.

We moved forward through a crowd that had formed around their orator who had been telling them about how the Chronicler and the Captain of the Guard of Ta-koro were looking for the seventh toa. As we approached, the speaker stopped and could tell that he was one himself. His size gave him away. Another stood next to him, presumably another toa since he was about the same height.

"Chronicler," the brown one asked, "Where is the Herald?"

I was about to answer, but Takua beat me to it. "We got…separated after we met the Rahkshi," he half lied. I resisted the urge to glare at him before turning back to the toa.

"Rahkshi?" the other questioned. "What are Rahkshi?"

Before either of us could answer, a rumbling could be felt and head throughout the cave. Dust and small debris fell from the ceiling right before an explosion tore a hole through the rock sending boulders down. Everyone ducked or ran for cover as the rumbling stopped and revealed three terrors that I had not thought I would see again. Three new Rahkshi stood before us, but these looked different from the last ones we had seen. Each one was a different color than before and felt more terrifying than the last. Whether it was because I had not been this close to them all the last time or because I had seen their kind, I wasn't sure, but I was positive that they were going to cause some serious damage.

"Those, except different ones," Takua stuttered as he looked at creatures.

"Those will be enough for enough for now," the brown one said.

"Welcome to Onu-koro," the black one roared as he hit the ground with his fists, a wave of energy moving through the stone floor sending debris at the Rahkshi, temporarily burying them in stone.

In an instant, everyone had began screaming and running towards the nearest exit, realizing that a big fight was about to start. I dumped the clothing from my shoulder and yelled at Takua to run. They were here for him, and we both knew it. If he could get away, maybe the Rahkshi would be drawn away from the village before any serious damage could be done. We were almost out when Takua turned around, a look of conviction etching his features.

"Takua, what are you doing? We have to get out of here!" I exclaimed.

"I caused this mess. I'm gonna do what I can to fix it," he said with more determination than I had ever heard come from him before. He urged Pewku forward and grabbed what I assumed was a weapon that looked like a long hammer with a scoop on the other end before charging at the nearest Rahkshi.

I followed behind him, hoping that he knew what he was doing. He swung out with his weapon at the creature who looked very unimpressed at his attack. It grabbed his weapon and let out an all too familiar hiss as it opened its face plate, revealing the worm-like face inside. I shuddered at the memory before charging at it and hitting it in the face with my bow. It howled angrily and dropped the weapon, its attention now turned on me.

"Takua, get out of here, now!" I yelled at him as I drew it away from him.

"But I-"

"Don't argue. Just go! I'll be fine," I urged and ran in the opposite direction, forcing the thing to follow me. I watched Takua for a moment, watching as he looked defeated before hurrying off. Seizing the moment of my distraction, the Rahkshi backhanded me in the chest, sending me to the ground with a thud. I winced from the pain as I put a hand instinctively over the spot where he had hit me.

I stared up with wide eyes as he stood over me, pointing his staff down at my face, ready to deliver the final blow. I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch what it was about to do when I heard a familiar voice cry out, "Rahkshi!"

I looked up to see Tahu distracting the creature, giving me the chance to get up from my spot. The Rahkshi did not seem pleased at the constant distractions and fired his energy at Tahu. Tahu brought up his sword to defend against the attack, but it was useless. Dark energy surrounded him and he went to the ground crying out in pain. "Tahu!" I cried out as I ran towards him and the Rahkshi walked away, no longer interested in us.

I knelt over him and examined him, hoping the damage was not too extensive, not that I knew anything about the injuries the Rahkshi could cause. As I looked over I could see that Tahu's normally red mask had been changed to a sickly green and cut ran across his left cheek. "Tahu?" I asked, hoping for some kind of response. The only signal that he gave was a small groan.

"Tahu, please, get up. I need your help. The matoran need your help," I urged, shaking him. Moments later, another familiar face came over. I recognized her as the one that had pulled me from the river several days ago.

"Brother," she breathed as she examined the damage that had been done. I was slightly taken aback by her response. They were siblings? They didn't even look alike! How were they siblings?

I was about to ask but was interrupted by Tahu. "Fire has no brothers," he said, standing up and grabbing his swords. We both took a step away from him. Something was not right. "Fire consumes all," he cried as he attacked us. A wave of hot energy surged from his swords as he hit the ground leaving a long scorch mark in the rock. I barely jumped away in time as the other blue toa leapt up to one of the hanging stalagmites.

He turned his attention away from her and onto me, the nearest target. "Tahu, please, stop this! We're not your enemies! We're your friends!" I tried to reason as I backed away from him.

"Fire has no friends," he repeated and swung out at me with one of his swords. I ducked away and managed to get onto my feet to put some distance between us. Turning back on him, I reached into my quiver to grab an arrow, hoping to just threaten him off, but what I found was not expected; the quiver was empty and I groped through empty air. Turning back to the on coming attacker, he swung his swords down, and without another moment's hesitation I brought my bow up and blocked him. He beat down on it several times, each time causing the metal of the bow to bend even more before final snapping in two.

I stared in horror at it for a moment thinking first that I was in serious trouble and second that the bow had cost me a lot of money. Quickly pushing aside the later thought, I began to back away from the enraged toa, trying to think of a better plan than what I had started with, which was nil.

The other toa took the moment to distract him from me, giving me the chance to put some distance between us again. This was not going to work for very long. Sooner or later, Tahu was going to tire of this and take one of us out. Who would be first was only a matter of time. I watched them for a moment as they fought, brother against sister. They fought as though they knew what the other would do next, one parry after the other as each one tried to come up with something new that would throw the other off. Watching them war was like watching an intricate but deadly dance.

It quickly came to a draw as the two backed away from each other, figuring that close combat would get them nowhere. I took the opportunity of this distraction and did the most idiotic thing I had probably done since crashing here. I ran at him and jumped on his back wrapping my arm around his neck. This was a classic move I had used on my brother-correction, foster brother-whenever we got into a serious fight. I didn't know how to do a sleeper hold or any fancy move like that, but I knew how to get him down on his back so that he couldn't do any damage without using up too much of my own strength.

Tahu thrashed about beneath my grip, but I held firm and began to pull down on him, forcing him to go down. He didn't respond well to force and began to fling his swords around, making every attempt to hit me with them. I couldn't go very far to evade his attacks with losing my grip, but I was able to stay close enough to him to keep him from hitting me.

As his rage grew in it ferocity, so did the accuracy of his swinging. Each time came even closer and his swords were growing even hotter. I grew even more nervous and contemplated on releasing my grip, but I didn't have long enough for that. He made a final strike, this time hitting his mark: my back.

I had been burned pretty badly before from some of my more adventurous cooking escapades, but none of those had anything on the pain that I felt now. I fell to the ground, tears flowing freely from my eyes as I crumpled up. My body shook from pain and shock, the pain making it unbearable to move. I wasn't paralyzed since I still had feeling in all my appendages, but the excruciating pain I felt from that burn made me wish that I couldn't.

I breathed heavily as I looked up at the intimidating form that now stood over me, ready to finish me off. As I prepared myself for what was to come, a jet stream of water hit him, knocking him away from me. I could only assume it was the other toa, but nothing was clear to me anymore. My vision became clouded as the pain took over, making me wish I could feel anything but this, anything but pain.

Kopaka watched as the toa fought. He couldn't imagine what had caused them to fight in such a way, but he could only assume that the Rahkshi had something to do with it. Running over as quickly as he could, Kopaka heard his sister, "Tahu, remember who you are! Remember your destiny!"

"I have no destiny," Tahu groaned against the force of the water that was pulsing against him. Taking the moment to stop him, Kopaka put his sword against his brother and froze him in place.

"I'm sorry, brother," was all the ice toa said. With that danger out of the way, both Lewa and Gali came over.

"Brothers, let's get them to safety," she said making a quick glance over to the crumpled up form of who he could only assume was the human Jaden. Fighting back the urge to gasp at the burn in the shape of Tahu's sword across her back, he hurried over to her and gingerly picked her up.

All of a sudden there was an explosion and the ceiling began to rumble sending large debris from above. "We'll never get them both out in time!" Kopaka said over the noise of the crashing roof.

"We can't just leave them!" Gali exclaimed.

Kopaka tried to think quickly, but he could think of no solution to their problem. There was no time to think it through. The cave was collapsing, and it was only a matter of time before they would all be buried in the rubble. As he contemplated on the grim thought of leaving the human behind, two large forms made their way through the cave. Never before had he been so relieved to see those scaly creatures.

"Lewa, Gali, get on! Frost will take the other two, and I'll grab the last! Hurry!" the nameless dragon ordered. They all did as told and climbed on to the animals' backs as the ceiling began to fall in larger pieces. With barely moments to spare, the nameless one grabbed Tahu's frozen form and led them all out of the crumbling cave through the hole that he assumed had been created by the Rahkshi.

They flew away from the mountain and down into the jungle below where they let them off in a clearing near the river. After securing Tahu down to a large boulder and laying Jaden down on the ground, Kopaka turned to the dragons and said, "Thank you Frost for bringing him. We wouldn't have made it out without you."

"Don't thank me, toa. It was Yori Yoi here who found me to help. He's the one who deserves the gratitude," Frost said practically beaming like a proud father at Yori Yoi.

Pushing a thought away about the dragon's new name, Kopaka turned to him and repeated his thanks. "I only wish we could have gotten there sooner. Maybe then this wouldn't have happened," he said as he glanced over at Jaden. He had never been burned before, but judging from the state she was in, it must have been painful and unbearable. He was surprised she was even still alive, guessing from the severity.

"Maybe so, maybe not. I shouldn't have let her go either way. I should have stood by Dan's decision to keep her back in the cave, but I didn't. This all my fault," Yori Yoi grieved.

"You can not blame yourself for her actions," Frost said trying to bring some comfort to the obviously downtrodden dragon. "She knew the danger of the Rahkshi when she was on the mountain. She knew what she was getting herself into."

"I don't think she realized that toa would possible turn on her. It looks like the Rahkshi poisoned him. None of us were ready for that," Kopaka stated solemnly.

"This is true. Yori, you must go back and get Dan. He might know what can be done for her," Frost suggested.

"He wants nothing to do with this. He let her go saying that she was on her own if anything went wrong," Yori Yoi admitted.

"That may be, but I have seen him; he has the look of father. No matter how a child stumbles, he would want to be there to help that child. He will come, even if he does seem like he will," Frost commented.

"You two work on that. I must go help Gali and Lewa with Tahu. There is much damage that must be undone." Kopaka stated simply before leaving the two dragons at it in the clearing.